Without adequate protection, individuals exposed to contact from incoming objects in the form of bullets, shrapnel, or other high-velocity projectiles stand to be injured, permanently incapacitated, or killed. The art has since provided many forms of protection to such individuals in the way of protective coatings, body armor, and other forms of anti-ballistic wear.
Protective coatings and body armor, for example, are subjected to testing to determine their effectiveness in withstanding projectile penetration. An exemplary form of tests are those which identify antiballistic performance according to standards, for example, those of the National Institute of Justice (NIJ). Testing conducted pursuant to NIJ standards identify speeds of projectiles that achieve penetration of the sample, backface deformation, and other performance characteristics.
According to NIJ Standard 0101.06, body armor may be classified into six specific types, based on the level of ballistic protection performance. The first four of these armor levels, Types I, II-A, II, and III-A, protect against handgun threats and are typically soft armor protective vests worn on a regular basis. Types III and IV, on the other hand, are typically hard armor that protects against the highest threats. For each of the threat levels, the armor must not only defeat a specified projectile type and number of shots, but also must limit a depth of deformation (backface deformation, backface signature, of “Bfs”) in a clay backing behind the armor to 44 mm or less.
The NIJ Type II-A provides protection, for example, against a 9 mm full metal jacketed bullet impacting at 1225 feet/second and a 0.40 S&W full metal jacketed bulled impacting at 1155 feet/second. The NIJ Type II standard provides protection, for example, against a 357 Magnum impacting at 1430 feet/second, and a 9 mm full metal jacketed bullet impacting at 1305 feet/second. The NIJ Type III-A armor standard requires the highest protection level for handgun threats. It provides protection, for example, against 44 Magnum lead semi-jacketed hollow point bullets, impacting at a velocity of 1430 feet/second or less, and 357 Magnum impacting at a velocity of 1470 feet/second or less. An armor satisfying the Type III-A standard also provides protection against the lesser threat levels, Type I, Type II-A, and Type II.
NIJ Types III and IV are for high-powered ball and armor piercing projectiles, respectively, and are typically used during tactical operations where higher protection is required. Type III armor protects against 7.62 mm full metal jacketed bullets (U.S. military designation M80) impacting at a velocity of 2780 feet/second or less, while providing protection against the lesser NIJ armor level threats. Type IV armor protects against 30 caliber armor piercing rounds impacting at velocity of 2880 feet/second.
It is known to create ballistic resistant garments made from woven fabric. Woven fabric armors may be more flexible, concealable, and wearable than the vests using reinforced plastic. Woven vests may be characterized by their weight per unit area (areal density). For example, aramid fabrics that meet NIJ Level III-A requirements have been designed with areal densities on the order of 1.2 pound per square foot. While satisfactory to meet the NIJ standards, these large areal densities are not suitable because of their heavy weight.
Therefore, there is a need to provide an antiballistic fabric that can achieve adequate protection against projectiles while maintaining low areal density, comfort, and flexibility for the individual form whom it is designed.